Of Gryffindors and Slytherins
by col.mustard
Summary: A lonely Slytherin girl who can't laugh starts a prank war with the most notorious pranksters at Hogwarts. But what started out as revenge turns into so much more.
1. Chapter 1

Melanie sat listening to Professor Snape's droning voice as he listed the recipe for brewing blood-clotting potion. She tried to pay attention, but her mind kept wandering off, eventually she gave up, her partner, Trixy, would get the directions.

"Do you remember what goes in next?" Trixy asked her as they stood over their brewing cauldron. Melanie sighed and picked up her potions book, flipping through the pages to find the instructions, trust Trixy to forget the order minutes after Snape explained them.

"Snapdragon scales," Melanie said curtly, picking them up and throwing them in herself. The potion bubbled and turned a dull blue color, before settling back down and gently sizzling.

"We have to let it sit for fifteen minutes, stirring it counterclockwise every five minutes," Trixy told her. The girl's eyes blinked earnestly at her, and Melanie didn't bother to try and hide her disdain. She supposed she should be more grateful to Trixy, after all, she was one of the few Slytherins who actually associated with her, considering her heritage. But Melanie felt no need to be grateful for such an act, after all, she didn't ask for it, and Melanie didn't need anybody or any friends, she was perfectly fine going through school on her own. She had all the friends she ever needed back home and she didn't need more.

"You get on that," Melanie put her head into her head, once again daydreaming.

All of a sudden there was an explosion from the other side of the room, and Melanie looked over to see that Gryffindor boy, Neville's, comically surprised face staring down into his angry cauldron. What really had the Slytherins rolling on the floor laughing, though, was the blue slime covering him from head to toe.

"Idiot boy!" Snape yelled at him from the front of the room, coming over to Neville.

"Are you alright, Neville?" Potter's friend, Hermione, asked in a genuinely worried tone.

"I think so," Neville answered, wiping the scum off his eyes so that he could open them and see. A couple Gryffindors were chuckling, but most of them were concerned for Neville.

"Can't you follow simple directions?" Snape was asking Neville over the laughter of the Slytherins.

"Stop that laughing," a Gryffindor, Melanie wasn't sure who, yelled over to their side of the room. Melanie looked back at all her fellow housemates. All were laughing, or at least giggling. Draco Malfoy's obnoxious snorts could be heard the loudest over everyone.

"Of course it would be Longbottom," he was saying cheerily, "Never could do anything right, that dunce."

Melanie was watching her housemates when she noticed the time. Trixy was too busy giggling and using the distraction to chat with some girls, so Melanie reached over and turned the potion herself. Melanie was just putting her wand down when suddenly the Slytherins dieing laughter burst out in new force, startling her. She looked over to see what it was now, and couldn't mark any difference for a moment. She eventually realized, however, that the slime had been cleared off of Neville's skin, and the reason she hadn't noticed it right away was because his skin was stained a bright blue, matching that of potion that had been flung on him.

Melanie could see how something like that was quite funny. Every time something went wrong in potions, more likely than not it was in Neville's cauldron. In fact, that was mostly the reason she knew the boy's name at all, because of all his mishaps. She also considered it quite funny the way the Gryffindors always jumped to defend Neville, scolding a quite uncaring bunch of Slytherins.

And yet, and yet Melanie found that she could not laugh about it. It wasn't that she was opposed to laughing at someone else's expense. No, that would be ridiculous of her, she thought. It was just that Melanie found that she had a hard time laughing at all. She didn't want to say that she couldn't, because she knew she could, it was just that it had been so long that she couldn't quite remember the last time.

She sat, bored, watching impassively the goings on. She noticed it before anyone else did, the subtle change in Longbottom. The Slytherins were too busy laughing, and if any Gryffindor had noticed it, they sure as hell would have done something.

Neville's face, it went from sheepish confusion to one of discomfort. She noticed that he was opening his mouth, trying to speak, but no sounds were coming out. His eyes were getting wider by the minute, and the grimace on his face was increasing, yet he didn't move, and uttered no sound. Eventually, even the small opening and closing of his jaw stopped.

"Hey, what are you looking at?" a Gryffindor boy with wavy blonde hair glared at her. The two houses had digressed into arguing and shouting at each other from both sides of the room. Melanie had barely noticed, considering that this step in events was practically inevitable, the two houses always ended up yelling at each other. Snape would let it go for a few more minutes before quieting everyone down.

Melanie was surprised that she had been addressed, since she never entered these sorts of tiffs. She deemed these things to be below her, plus she had nothing to do with it. She had no investment in either side of their argument.

"I think you should stop worrying about me, and start worrying about your friend," Melanie taunted him, and when the boy just looked confusedly at her, "He needs to go to the hospital wing."

The boy turned to Neville, who was dazedly floundering about completely collapsing to the floor a second later.

"Neville!" a couple of Gryffindors shouted as a few boys picked him. Neville was completely limp by now, his eyes glazed.

"Yes, yes," Snape said, assuming his perfunctory bit as teacher, "Take him to the hospital wing," he mumbled as several boys carried a limp Neville out of the room.

"What a git," the Slytherins were still muttering, making fun of the boy even after he was seriously injured.

"Oh no, I forgot to stir the potion," Trixy moaned from beside her.

"No worries, I got it," Melanie assured her.

"Oh good," Trixy said, clapping her hands. It seems that everyone else in the room had forgotten to stir their potions in all the excitement a moment later when the room was filled with groans and frustrated expletives as people's attentions were finally back on the class.

It was soon time to go, and Melanie offered to bottle up their potion while Trixy scrambled out of the classroom. She stood in line up front to turn her potion into Snape, and couldn't help but feel a little bit of pride that hers was the only potion that was the correct dull blue color, everyone else's was a sickeningly bright red.

Melanie looked over as Hermione turned in her own bright red bottle. The girl was so upset by her defective potion that she looked as though she was about to cry. Melanie rolled her eyes at the girl for getting so upset over one stupid potion, but at the same time, she couldn't help feeling pleasure at the fact that she had outdone Miss Perfect at something in class.

Melanie turned in her bottle. "Good job, Miss Marsh," Snape told her, looking at that color of her potion. Melanie just shrugged off handedly, but secretly delighted in the praise, especially as she saw Hermione eyeing her angrily as she walked past her. Gathering her books, she walked out the door.

Melanie made her way to the Great Hall for lunch. The kids had different class schedules during this time of day, so the Great Hall wasn't filled, not like it is for breakfast and dinner. The kids from Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor intermixed tables at this time and sat together. Of course, the Slytherins all kept to themselves at their own table.

Melanie recognized a few Slytherins eating at the far end of the room. They were a couple years ahead of her, and like most of her housemates, not friendly toward her. She took a seat furthest away from them, knowing that they would not want to sit with her, and not wanting to sit with them either.

She pulled out the book she had been reading, flipping to her page and settling down, gladly eating the sandwich that had popped up in front of her. So engrossed was she in reading about famous people she had learned about in her muggle history, and how, surprisingly, they were actually wizards or witches. Plato was a wizard? And Atlantis was a citadel of magical people?

"Hey Mudblood," the voice came from above her head.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" Melanie asked scowling, not hiding the contempt in her voice as she looked up and saw the leering grin of on that pasty face. She didn't want to have to deal with this nitwit right now.

"You can't talk to me that way." Malfoy sneered at her, "I come from one of the best wizarding families there is, and a rotten little Mudblood like you ought to show some respect for her betters."

Melanie looked up at him with ire. While the Slytherins had often taunted Melanie, especially her first year here, they had eventually gotten bored with her lack of reaction, and most of the time they just ostracized her. It was unusual for anyone to confront her like this now without any provocation.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" Melanie asked tiredly, showing that she was done with him and just wanted to get this whole conversation or whatever it was over with, so that she could move on.

"I see you sitting by yourself all the time," Draco said, leaning casually back in his chair, speaking in a much friendlier tone than this earlier one, full of righteous hate. "And while you are a pathetic little Mudblood," he looked at her distastefully, "I've decided that since you are a Slytherin, I might make you an offer that you will undoubtedly be quite ecstatic about."

"Oh, and what's that?" Melanie frowned at him, looking suspiciously from Crabbe to Goyle, who were standing on Malfoy's flanks.

"I've decided that I'll let you hang out with me, I'll even take you to dances and such," Malfoy said as though he were offering her a million galleons. "You would understand that you would be like my servant, though, and you would always have to treat me with respect, since I am belittling myself to take you in."

Melanie stared at him in shock. Was he for real? "I know you must be surprised that I would offer to help a Mudblood," Draco said self-importantly, "But I have, out of the kindness of my heart." He looked to Crabbe, who confirmed with a nod of his head that indeed, Draco was being extremely, unbelievably, beyond-all-call-of-duty kind, for giving her such a generous offer.

"Draco, I'm not really sure how to answer that," Melanie said.

"I know, it must be a bit overwhelming," Draco answered, and he actually reached out and patted her hand! Melanie snatched her hand away as though it were burned.

"I might try to be subtle, to spare you feelings," Melanie started, "But I know that your giant ego would not allow you to interpret what I would be telling you, so I'm going to be plain. I never, and will never want to be your friend, servant, or whatever it is you're suggesting. I think you are disgusting jackass. I don't want to be around you, or be seen around you. Got it?"

Melanie picked up her books and her bag. "I hope that I've been clear?" she asked questioningly. The utter look of shock on Draco's face showed that he was being utterly serious about his proposition, that he actually thought she would appreciate it. He glanced embarrassedly from Crabbe to Goyle.

"Fucking Mudblood, thinks she's better than she is," he said scathingly from behind her back as Melanie had already stood up and was heading to the main doors.

Normally she just ignored whatever taunts people were giving her. She was above all them and their insults. They could call her a Mudblood till they were blue in the face and she still wouldn't care and wouldn't even deign to fight back. But still, it felt good to put Malfoy in his place for once.

She could hear footsteps hurryingly following her, and she knew who it was. Malfoy couldn't let her get away with that, especially not in front of his friends. He would have to hex her to feel like he was still better than her, even though she rejected him.

Melanie was prepared to whip around from her forward stride and throw a hex at Malfoy and his minions before they even had a chance to think about what they were going to do, perfectly finishing off her outburst at Malfoy, but before she got the chance, something went horribly wrong.

One minute she was striding confidently down the hallway, and the next, she was lying flat on her back, and bugs were falling down on her face. Melanie started screaming pushing the bugs off her as best she could. She quickly stood to her feet, trying so desperately to get all the squirmy little creatures off of her, that she wasn't paying attention to where she was going, and she stumbled right into a hole in the floor.

Her foot got stuck, and she fell backwards onto her butt, her other leg flying out in the air above her. She groaned as she tried to get out of the whole, at the same time grabbing her wand, thinking someone was hexing her. She looked over to where she knew Malfoy and his friends would be, and they were just rolling around laughing. They didn't even have their wands out.

She continued to struggle to stand up, but before she could, she felt something gooey and sticky land on her head. The slimey substance ran down her hair and onto her cheeks. Melanie reached up her hand and felt the goo with her fingers, smelling it. Honey.

Wondering why someone would jinx her with honey on her head, she felt a rumble underneath her foot, the one still trapped inside the hole. There was a tickling sensation, and a pressure, dull at first, but building. She desperately yanked to try and get her foot out of the hole, not knowing what could be in there.

"Ahh," she screamed as her foot was jammed out for her by the growing pressure. The swarm of Honey Hucks were on her in a matter of seconds, attracted by the sugar covering her scalp.

"Get off," she yelled swatting away the hearty little buggers as they swarmed her, licking the honey off of her.

She couldn't see what was happening, too covered in tiny little bugs. She could hear the laughter of Malfoy quite distinctly, though, loud and obnoxious. The idiot didn't even have to jinx her, some unknown person did it for him.

She gripped her wand tightly in her hand, "Ut fugo!" she shouted, pointing her wand in the air. The Honey Hucks stopped their lick attack of her face and took to flight, dispersing along the corridors.

She glanced over to Malfoy, who was still laughing hysterically. Inside, Melanie seethed. She was angry at Malfoy for laughing and seeing her like that, but she was more angry at whoever had hexed her. She flipped her head around for the culprit, but no one else was even about. With a glare at Malfoy, she decided that it wasn't worth it right now, and she stalked off. She needed to get back to her room and wash up, especially before anyone could see her. Luckily, not many people used these halls.

Unfortunately, though, she passed the Weasley twins, who gaped at her for a second before they burst out laughing. Melanie sent them a death glare as she passed them and continued to stalk toward the Slytherin dungeon.

"Oi, someone set off our trap, and we weren't there to see it," she heard one of them say in a complaining voice. That made Melanie freeze and turn to look at them as they continued to walk along like nothing had happened. She stared at their retreating backs.

"I told you we set it to early to get Percy. You should have waited like I told you."

"How am I to know someone would come wandering down here?"

"Oh well, at least it was a Slytherin."

"Still too bad we missed it."

_The Weasley Twins_, Melanie thought menacingly as they turned the corner, out of sight. Always setting off jokes. Always looking for laughs. Well, she wasn't laughing. They had messed with the wrong person this time, she thought. She was simply _not_ in the mood.

They thought they could just play jokes on whoever they wanted and get away with it? At least it was a Slytherin, their asses. Melanie wasn't sure how yet, but she would get them back for this. It was time that those Weasley twins got a taste of their own medicine.


	2. Melanie's plan

Melanie sat in the library the day after her altercation with Malfoy. She was trying to study her astrology homework, but she found that she couldn't keep her mind off her need for revenge against the two airhead gingers and that pure-blood brat. Did they seriously think that they could mess with her and laugh at her and that she wouldn't get back at them?

They probably thought that she wouldn't do anything about it, because she hadn't turned around and hexed them right away. But that just wasn't her style. She wasn't into the whole hot-headed, unplanned, unsophisticated plots. She knew how to bide her time, let them think they were off the hook, then she would get them. When they weren't expecting it.

"He is just so beautiful, how can I be expected to help myself?" some first year girls' conversation leaked into her daydreams. Melanie only had a moment to be annoyed, before the next sentence hit her ears, and she was suddenly glad that she had been so unfocused and easily distracted that day.

"But where did you even get a love potion?" one of the girls asked. The wheels in Melanie's head were turning. A love potion. She sat up infinitesimally straighter, and fought the urge to turn around and view the girls who were talking.

"I just found it."

"You just found it? Who would leave something like that lying around? Where did you find it?" her friend asked her curiously. Melanie was curious too, but the love-struck girl wasn't giving up details.

"What does it matter? I just found it. And now Eric Empleton will be in love with me. Just as soon as a sneak some into his food."

"But you know, he won't really be in love with you," a voice-of-reason pointed out. "And the potion will wear off."

"What do you know?" the other girl asked angrily, "You're just jealous because you wish you had some to use on Harry Potter."

"Shut up! I do not!" the reasonable one sputtered and the rest of the girls giggled. Melanie rolled her eyes. She had heard enough when their conversation digressed into who would use the love potion on what boy and their perspective cutenesses. Melanie had a much better need for their love potion, wherever they had gotten it from, and felt righteous in liberating it from these inane girls.

"Accio love potion," Melanie whispered quietly to herself as she waved her wand. Luckily, the girls sitting at the table behind her were too busy giggling and gossiping to even notice the little bottle slowly float out of one of the bags and land softly right into Melanie's open palm. She grinned satisfactorily to herself as she carelessly slipped the bottle into her robe pocket and started to gather her books. She turned to catch a glimpse of the girls who had been sitting behind her as she left the library, just as she had suspected, silly first years with too much makeup. She had really been doing them a favor, taking the potion from them.

Over the past couple days Melanie found that she had been noticing the redheaded dumb and dumber more often than she normally would have. When she was in the court yard, or in the great hall, her eyes would unconsciously scan the crowd for a pair of identical flaming heads, and when she found them, she would find that she would watch them for at least a couple of minutes.

She had started to notice things about them. How she had not once seen them apart, even thinking back to before she could give a damn about either of them, she couldn't remember ever seeing them when they weren't together. It was actually quite annoying, she thought. It was also annoying how they were always smiling and laughing. Wasn't it just a bit unnatural for a person to always be happy? They also spent a lot of time with other Gryffindors, but so far, she hadn't seen them with anyone from another house.

Right then, Melanie was sitting by herself at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall. Of course there wasn't really enough extra room at the table for her to really be sitting by herself, but for all intents and purposes, she wasn't sitting with anyone. She wasn't talking to anyone, and preferred it that way. She would rather sit in peace.

She was munching on some meat pie, watching the twins talk animatedly to their friends. She was trying to decide the best course of action. It had been four days since she had gotten the love potion, and she was starting to despair of finding the chance to use it. She could easily slip them something to eat at another time in the day, but she needed this to be public. She needed this to happen during dinner. And how was she supposed to get over to the Gryffindor table to do it? It wasn't like she would have an excuse for even walking over there. She certainly didn't have any Gryffindor friends who would do it for her. And this was her dilemma.

One of the twins, she thought it was Fred, leaned over and smacked his brother in the back of the head, scolding him for one thing or another. George said something right back to him, also returning the slap in turn. Though their actions appeared to be unfriendly, their faces contradicted this, because they both still had their trademark grins on their faces, showing that they weren't really angry at each other.

Suddenly, Melanie, who had not been paying attention to what was going on around her, felt her meat pie land heavily in her lap, the brown juices oozing everywhere, down her legs, covering her robes. The Slytherins in her immediate vicinity burst out laughing. "Miss your mouth Mudblood?" one asked. Melanie was irritated, but she had more important things to worry about.

Without reacting, she pulled out her want, "Purgio," she said calmly, and the mess disappeared from her lap. The Slytherins laughter had died down, and once again uninterested in her, they went back to talking and eating. Melanie took a big breath. It wasn't worth getting upset by the things these people did to her. They were all idiots.

Melanie reached over to grab some more food from the center of the table, watching as the dish of potatoes magically refilled itself. And inspiration struck. The food didn't just appear from nowhere. It was prepared by the house elves, in the kitchen.

If she couldn't get the potion onto the twins' plates after they had them, she would just have to do it before. But how was she to do I? It would probably end up being just as tricky, if not more so. She had never been to the kitchens before, and she didn't think the house elves would be particularly welcoming to a student in their domain. It was still worth a try, though.

Tonight, she thought, helping herself to some more potatoes, she would sneak down to the kitchens and have a quick look around.

***

The room was pin-drop quiet, and dark. Melanie lay in bed with her eyes open, the only one awake in the small room of fifth year Slytherin girls. Deciding that it was quite safe, she got up and out of bed, slipping on her robes. The Slytherin dungeon room was usually cold, but especially at night. She shivered upon getting out of bed, but it was something that must be done. Grabbing her wand from under her pillow, she quietly went into the common room.

"Lumos," she whispered, lighting up the room. It was too late for anyone to be still awake, but she was still relieved to find that the common room was empty. She tiptoed her way to the door, carefully swinging the heavy dungeon door open and slipping out. Well, now the easy part was over. Not really having a plan, other than going to the kitchens and snooping around, she headed down the hallway,

The kitchens, she knew were on the same level as the dungeons, but in the West wing of the building, not too far away, but far enough that there was amble opportunity for her to get caught, which is why she wore her Overlookme hanging around her neck. She had bought it in her first year at Hogwarts, when she had been weak and unable to deal with all the bullying. Melanie thought back to that time now with disgust. She had just wanted her fellow housemates to stop picking on her, so she bought the charm and wore it everyday. It did work, but she eventually found out that being practically invisible could be just as bad as being tormented. It wasn't until after she went back home for the summer and took the thing off that she realized that she had become a shell of a person. She had let them do that to her, and it was pathetic. She had sworn not to wear the thing since…but this was a special occasion.

The charm, though helpful, still couldn't make her invisible. She stuck close to the wall, and hoped that in the event she did run into someone else down here, she could find some armor or curtains to quickly hide behind, letting the Overlookme do the rest.

But as it was, she didn't have anything to worry about, for she made it to the kitchens without running into another soul. The door was large with a brass handle that was placed awkwardly just above Melanie's knee. The wood was a deep brown and worn perfectly smooth. The thing would obviously be locked, Melanie thought as she stood in front of it.

"Alohomora," she waved her wand, wondering if it could really be that easy. She heard a small click, and the door swung easily open in her hand. There probably wasn't much of a need for children to break into the kitchens, so security was low. Perfect for her.

No sooner had she thought this and stepped into the dark kitchens than she heard a loud popping noise. Spinning around, she saw that standing behind her was a scowling, ragamuffin house elf. Melanie gasped and involuntarily stepped backwards, tripping over something and falling on her butt.

The house elf, though much smaller than her, now looked awfully intimidating, standing staring over her. It's skin was a dark shade of brown and it was clear that it was a male elf. He had one eyebrow raised in a supercilious way. The expression on his face was so lordly, that it quite belied his overall appearance, dressed up in a dirty old potato sack with bits of string tied around his wrists and ankles, as though to suggest jewelry. On his head was a sort of hat, fashioned out of what looked to be an old glass jar and kitchen utensils, a quite impressive article if you could ignore the silliness of it.

"Uhhh," Melanie tried to think of something to say, an explanation for why she was there. "I woke up and I was feeling really sick, and I thought that maybe some food would help, so I came here to get some food," she shrugged her shoulders as she scrambled to her feet. "I wasn't going to touch anything or do anything, I was just going to get a snack."

Melanie was so busy trying to cover herself with explanation that she didn't notice the most extraordinary look on the house elf's face. "Mistress," the elf interrupted her. His voice was surprisingly deep and smooth for such a small creature. His eyes were wide with disbelief and excitement.

"What?" Melanie asked, glancing around the kitchen as if she thought that it was some sort of prank. Here she thought the jig was up and that the elf would report her to Filch or worse, but instead, he was looking at her like she was the second coming.

"My Mistress, I had never thought to see you here," the elf said, walking up to her, gently grabbing her hand in both his little ones and kissing the back of it. Melanie could only stare down at the little elf in utter confusion.

"I don't know who you think I am…" Melanie started to say, but stopped herself. Whoever this elf thought she was, it was a luck break. Don't disillusion the little guy and have him turn on her.

"I had thought never to see anyone from my old family again, but here you are, my Mistress. I have always remained loyal to you," the elf was quick to explain as though she might admonish him, "I have come to work here, but your noble family is always first in my faithful heart," the proud little elf placed his hand solemnly over his heart. "Anything you need, I shall do for you with unquestioning urgency, my mistress. I will not fail in my first and most important duties to you—"

Melanie cut him off, "What is your name?" she asked, wondering if she could actually have gotten so lucky as to have this crazy house elf have mistaken her for his former master. It was too much, and Melanie didn't quite trust it, but she wasn't about to let this opportunity go if in fact it was legit.

"I am the honorable and obedient Runubus," the elf stood up straight, his pointy chin proudly in the air.

Melanie looked down at him, "Do you think you could help me with something Runubus?"

"Of course M'lady," he seemed almost to be offended, "You only have to tell me what to do and I will execute the matter to the best of my abilities.

Melanie told him her plan.


	3. Chapter 3

It was just another normal evening meal in the great hall, for everyone but Melanie, who was grinning so much on the inside that the corners of her mouth actually twitched a bit. She was quietly eating, and thankfully her fellow housemates didn't seem interested in picking on her tonight, which left her free to watch and wait for her plan to go into affect.

Looking over at the twins' table, she watched them eat in their usual voracious way. They shoveled food into their mouths like uncivilized heathens. One was picking up carrots and placing them on his fork before shoving them into his mouth. Melanie allowed herself to look on with disgusted contempt, wondering why he even bothered with the utensils at all, as she daintily lifted a spoonful of soup into her mouth.

She focused on acting normal, like it was any other day. "That stupid twit, McGonagall didn't give me an O on my paper," she could hear Malfoy's sneering voice from a couple people over. He paused to lift a piece of cut meat eloquently to his mouth as he waited for his minions groans and complaints at the injustice of that bitch of an excuse for a teacher, which came readily to his ears. Melanie rolled her eyes, trying not to listen to their pathetic conversation.

She knew the first moment that it happened, for her eyes rarely wandered from her intended targets. All of a sudden, one of the Weasly twins got a look in his eye, staring off into the distance. The others around him didn't seem to notice any change, but it wasn't until they were both looking away dreamily that the others at the table started poking them and waving hands in front of their faces.

Melanie could see the faces surrounding the twins looking in the direction they were looking at, trying to see what had captured their attentions. Most of them were smiling, expecting some sort of joke out of these two. Suddenly, one pushed away from the table, standing abruptly up, which seemed to serve as a cue to the other, who did the same as the first.

Then they were tripping over each other, rushing to the Slytherin table. Shouts followed from their friends, questioning what the two were doing. Melanie watched the two tall boys awkwardly shoved and tripped over each other as they approached, her mouth twisting into a tiny smirk of anticipation.

The whole hall gradually grew quieter as people were becoming aware of the two beloved Gryffindors path to the enemy's table. She could practically feel the tension in the Slytherins as hands went for wands, but still waiting to see what was about to happen.

The twins were almost right beside her now. "My love," one of them said. Slytherins eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but in the next moment, there was a rumble throughout the dining room, noises of pure shock as Draco Malfoy stood up to meet the twins. Arms wrapped around each other, Malfoy and Weasly embraced in a passionate kiss. They met with mouths wide open as tongues poised for entrance, embracing tightly, that is until the other Weasly could manage to push his brother away for his own kiss with Draco.

After the initial shocked booming noise, the hall was completely silent, no one quite sure what to do. Melanie felt her insides swell with pride as her mouth separated into a full-teeth smile. It felt good. This couldn't have gone more perfectly, and Melanie was surprised at how easily she had actually pulled it off.

The twins were pushing at each other, fighting for Malfoy's affections, then they were pushing at the Gryffindors hands that were pulling them back, just as desperately as Malfoy was pushing away the Slytherins who were holding them off.

Their side of the table was suddenly crowded with teachers, assisting in getting the afflicted students away from each other. "Take them to the hospital wing," someone said.

"No," another voice popped in, "Separate them, take them to their rooms."

"Someone gave them a love potion! It's the only explanation!"

"Terrible. Terrible."

"Bloody brilliant! I mean, awful for the poor Weaslys, but still rather hilarious. Ow, what?"

"Who would do this?"

"Kind of funny in a way."

Voices rang throughout the hall as people buzzed about what just happened. She had caused all this, Melanie thought as she looked around. She hadn't been caught and it worked perfectly. She was left with the taste of wanting more.

***

"What happened?" George asked as he rubbed his aching head. He had a headache and the last thing he could remember was eating supper, and now he was in the Gryffindor common room surrounded by a sea of faces, each wearing a slightly different expression, mixtures of worry, laughter, horror, curiosity.

He sensed the presence of his twin beside him without having too look over beside him. Fred moved around and he heard a groan. He assumed whatever had happened to him had happened to Fred.

"You kissed Malfoy!" Ron shouted. He had a look on his face as though he weren't quite sure whether to be horrified or to tease his brother mercilessly about it. He seemed to be vacillating between the two.

"What?!" George shouted, sitting up straight. Suddenly it all came back to him. He was watching the memories in his head as though he were watching a movie, as though it weren't really him who was doing those things.

"Oh. My. God," George put his hand in his heads, not really sure what to do.

Fred sat groggily up. "My mouth tastes awful," he stated, "Did I have some bad food at dinner or something?"

"Someone must have given you two a love potion. Though I don't know who would do something so awful," Hermione said, genuinely upset, "Really, to think of the thoughtlessness. Though it is curious how they managed to accomplish it, and it was a very strong love potion, must have been excellently brewed," and now you could see the wheels of curiosity turning in her head as she thought over the villain's actions and means.

Fred started groan, indicating that what they had done was coming back to him.

"Well, it seems like you two finally got a taste of your own medicine if you ask me," Lee smirked from the corner where he had his arms crossed, leaning back in a chair, chuckling softly to himself.

"Oi, I thought you were supposed to be our mate," George accused, "And look at you laughing in the face of our doubtlessly permanent emotional scars." He scowled deeply.

"Yeah, you all call yourself friends. Where is my toothbrush," Fred said, jumping up and running up the stairs, heading for their bathroom.

"I'm right behind you," George called, running after his brother.

"I wonder who could have done it," Hermione looked curiously at her friends. "Perhaps someone was getting back at them for all their practical jokes."

"Yeah, it would almost be kind of funny if Malfoy wasn't such a total disgusting prick," Ron said, "I sort of feel bad for those two."

"Still, I wonder who it could be," Hermione's eyebrows were squished together and despite the fact that she was standing next to Rona and Harry, she was talking to herself.

***

"Runubus" Melanie whispered that evening as she entered the kitchens. "Thank you, it was brilliant," she told him as the house elf appeared out of nowhere before her. The little elf looked up solemnly and took off his hat.

"No need to thank me mistress, I am here to serve."

Melanie looked down at her ally. She wanted to ask him who he thought she was, but at the same time, she didn't want to dissuade him from his current thinking and willingness to obey her every wish.

"About that," Melanie said hesitantly, hedging slowly toward her ultimate goal. "I was wondering if you could help me with another little project I was thinking of."

"Anything Mistress," Runubus said eagerly.

"And you wouldn't tell anyone about this, would you?" she asked the elf.

"Mistress," he held his hand to his heart, "I'm embarrassed that you would have to ask such a question. Surely it is because I have not done a good enough job showing you my loyalty. Please, tell me anything and I will do it, and more, Mistress."

"No, no," Melanie hurriedly reassured the distressed elf, "I was only making sure we had things clear. You've been very helpful, wonderful." The elf's face transformed at her praise. His smashed wrinkly face looked downright gleeful, and Melanie was struck by how cute he was in a strange, disfigured sort of way.

"I was just wondering what parts of the castle you have access too?" hedged, despite the elf's overwhelming willingness to do whatever she asked, she still felt a little weird about it. She didn't want to ask him to do anything he couldn't.

"Anywhere M'Lady. We are really only supposed to stay in the kitchens, but I can go anywhere in the castle. Where shall I go? Just tell me what I must do and I will, with the utmost haste."

"But can you go there undetected? It's okay if you say no, I won't ask you to do anything that you can't."

"M'Lady. I can go anywhere in the castle. I can flash there in the blink of an eye. House elves, our powers are different from wizards, the castles spells don't work the same on us. Just ask and I will do this thing that you want me to do. All you have to do is ask."

"Okay…" Melanie said, finally getting down to it. "Here's what I need…"


	4. out of bed

"Damn damn damn bloody damn!" Fred shouted as he stomped up to his teammates, throwing his broom down on one of the old, wooden benches. George walked in a few paces after him, his arms crossed. The other member of the team had been sitting around, chatting and strategizing about he game coming up later that evening. It was early morning and Wood had decided it was necessary for the team to get one more practice in before game time.

"What is it this time?" asked Lila, a slightly chubby girl with short, curly brown hair. The team, and in fact everyone in the Gryffindor house, and practically everyone in the whole school was aware of the increasing number of pranks being played on the twins. Over the past week and a half, they were relentless, and it was only growing worse.

The twins weren't sure what to make of what was going on at first, after the kiss. But then, their books turned to jello, their ears grew until they were hanging down to their feet, all of their socks became horribly itchy, and when they started tap dancing for five hours straight before they could finally break the hex on their shoe, they knew something had to be done.

Lookouts were posted, traps were set, but still, they weren't any closer to catching their tormentor, and the pranks were still going on strong.

"Just look at it," Fred said gesturing to his broom. It looked fine from where it was resting on the bench. Lila turned back to Fred, raising her eyebrow curiously, she turned back to the broom, lifting it in her hand. The whole thing went limp as though it were rubber.

"Oh no," groaned Wood. "It's one thing playing pranks on you two, but it is another when you start messing with the welfare of the team."

"Yeah, who cares about us?" George said with a smile, "As long as Gryffindor wins."  
"Oh, you two can dish it out but you can't take it," Katie pointed out, laughing over the rubberized broom. "I think the pranks are pretty funny."

"We aren't this bad," denied Fred, "We don't pick on anyone person like we're being picked on. This guy obviously wants a war and I'm just itching to give it to him, we just need to discover who it is first." Fred was pacing the little dugout.

"Yeah, yeah, you need to do that, but you need to get your brooms fixed before the game today," Wood told them.

"We tried," George complained, "But it's going to take us a lot longer to fix them than we have before the game."

Wood made a grunting sound of frustration. "Well, there's no other option, you'll just have to borrow some of the school's brooms."

"It just figures," Fred moaned. While the Weasly twins were used to hand-me-downs, their brooms not being the newest and fastest to start with, they were at least better than the few extra brooms from the seventies that Hogwarts kept in a closet somewhere.

"Come on guys," Harry piped up. "You guys are great beaters. We can still beat Slytherin even if you have to use old brooms," Harry tried to cheer the team up.

"Oh shut it Harry," Fred said grouchily.

Melanie sat by herself in the stands of the Quidditch pitch. All around her students were shouting, standing, clapping, booing, but Melanie only sat and watched. It was the first Quidditch game she had come to since first year. She didn't particularly like sports, and it wasn't like she was interested in supporting her house, so she hadn't really seen any point. Plus, since virtually all Slytherins would attend the games when their house was playing, Melanie enjoyed having the common room to herself.

Today, however, something drew Melanie to the game. As she sat in the corner of the Slytherin stands, staring up at the play, there was no denying what that was. Her eyes were following the action of two players in particular, Fred and George.

Melanie knew the only reason she was there was to see how they had reacted to her prank. Just like the only reason she had been watching them was to gain insight into how to get back at them.

One of them hit the bludger right at Malfoy's head, almost hitting him too if it hadn't been for the Slytherin beater redirecting it at the last second. Bad luck, Melanie thought to herself. A sudden roar came from the Gryffindor team, Angelina Johnson had just scored.

Melanie was too busy watching the twins to notice Harry's nosedive until the announcer excitedly said, "And Harry Potter has just spotted the snitch!" Well, that was that then. Though Melanie hadn't been to a Quidditch match in a while, she knew Harry Potter had never not once caught the snitch, she had heard Malfoy complaining about it enough.

Melanie watched as Harry zoomed throughout the pitch. Though Quidditch was by nature a fast-passed game, Harry was flying faster now than any of the other players had been before, expertly turning and darting, avoiding bludgers from the Slytherin beaters, which were all now aimed at him, though Fred and George were doing their best to deflect them. Malfoy, the Slytherin seeker was flying behind Harry, but Melanie could see there was little hope. She grudgingly had to admit to herself that it was somewhat impressive.

She had been so busy watching Harry that she almost didn't notice the bludger heading straight for one of the twin's head. He apparently didn't notice it either. Melanie almost felt the urge to scream "look out" but knew that was ridiculous, he wouldn't hear her anyway, besides, what did she care?

The twin, from this distance it was impossible for her to even guess which one it was, noticed the bludger at the last second, and he turned his broom to hastily move out its way. The bludger was too close, however, and it hit him right in the back of the head, making Melanie wince. Cheers broke out from the Gryffindor team for their victory, Harry by now having caught the snitch, but quieted down almost immediately as one of the Weasly brothers toppled forward and fell off his broom. The other quickly flew to aid him, but didn't reach him before he landed on the ground.

He was soon surrounded by the Gryffindor team as well as some teachers. Melanie fought back the feeling of guilt that she felt in the pit of her stomach. He still would have gotten hurt even if Melanie hadn't tampered with their brooms. The brooms didn't make that much difference, it was really the flyer. Melanie told herself this, but knew she didn't really have enough experience to know. Melanie hadn't flown since Madame Hooch's class first year, and hadn't enjoyed it even then.

She stood up quickly and quietly slipped down the long flight of spiral stairs and out of the stands before the rest of her housemates.

Melanie trudged down the deserted hall, on her way back to her dorm from the kitchens. She had gone to tell Runubus to hold off on implementing her latest prank. One of the twins, she thought it was Fred, hadn't been at dinner that night. She knew he was in the hospital wing, and she thought it would be in poor taste to carry out a prank while a party was injured.

"Oommph," Melanie let out a little sound as she felt someone walk into her, knocking her backwards onto her butt. Melanie suddenly panicked. She hadn't been as careful as she should have been. The lack of incident in the past week had given her a false sense of security. She hadn't seen anyone on any of her late night excursions, leading her to not pay attention. Stupid.

Melanie looked up to see who had caught her, immediately racking her brain for an excuse as to why she was out of bed. She let out a gasp, blinking she shook her head as though to rid it of the sight.

"Oh, sorry, didn't see you there," the redheaded boy looked down at her with equal shock in his eyes.

"Yeah," Melanie accepted his outstretched hand and let him pull her to her feet. This was awkward. What do you say when you suddenly come face to face with the boy that you have been watching and perhaps slightly obsessing over (in a nonromantic way of course) for the past week?

"So, what are you doing out of bed so late at night?"

"I could ask you the same question," Melanie snapped defiantly. He only grinned at her. Why was he being so friendly toward her? Then Melanie realized, she wasn't wearing her school uniform, and therefore wasn't wearing her house colors. He didn't know who she was, that she was in Slytherin.

"I was visiting my brother," he shrugged. Melanie only then realized how weird it was to see him alone.

"Oh yeah, it's weird to see you without your other half," Melanie said before she could think better of it.

"Oh, so you know who I am? Wish I could say the same." And then he winked at her. Melanie's eyes widened. He winked at her? Was he flirting with her? Melanie decided to ignore the last comment.

"No, I don't," she denied, shaking her head, "I don't know which one you are."

He laughed and held out his hand, "George-the better looking twin." Melanie shook his hand. "And you are?"

Melanie didn't know why, but for some reason she felt she should keep it a secret. Which was ridiculous, really. "Melanie," she reluctantly admitted. George smiled at her.

"So what are you doing out of bed?"

"None of your business," Melanie scowled at him, but it must not have been very threatening since he only smiled. Then something occurred to her.

"If you were visiting your brother, then what are you doing down here?" The hospital wing was on the third floor.

George shrugged, "None of your business," but his words were tempered with a goofy smile. Why is he smiling so much? Melanie thought irritably. What a dolt.

"Shh," George said in the next second, even though Melanie hadn't been saying anything. She instantly heard what had caused his command. Footsteps were coming down the hall from the left. By the way the person was dragging his feet, Melanie guessed that it was none other than Filch.

George grabbed her hand and made as thought to tug her down the hall. "No, this way," Melanie whispered urgently, tugging George's hand to the nearest alcove.

"What are you doing, this is a terrible hiding spot," George muttered, noticing that there wasn't much cover.

"Be quiet and bend down," Melanie whispered bossily. Standing that close to George, pressed into a little alcove behind a statue, she finally appreciated how tall he was, at least two heads taller than her-her eye level being somewhere around his chest.

Melanie had pulled out her Overlookme. The chain was pretty long, so she could easily slip it around George's neck when he had finally bent low enough that she could reach over his head. Even so, it brought them much closer together than would be considered appropriate for someone you had just met.

George was looking at her questioningly, but didn't say anything as Filch had just the rounded the corner and could now be seen making his way down the hall. Somewhere during the scuffle, George had put his arm around her waist so as to be more comfortable in the small space. Melanie tried not to think about how good it felt. Their faces were right next to each other. Melanie could hear George breathing.

The pair watched as Filch walked right by, not giving a second glance in their direction. It was like out of a scene of a humorous movie, the bad guy not noticing the painfully obvious hiding right in front of his nose.

Melanie could feel George's fingers move slightly at the small of her back. She was pressed up against his chest, and Melanie was painfully aware of everything that was masculine about him. His height, the hardness of his chest, the strength of his arm around her, his smell.

Melanie tried to keep her face forward, but her eyeballs strained in their sockets to get a glimpse of his face. Finally she turned her neck only slightly, to find that he was looking at her. With the slight turn of her neck, George snapped his head forward again.

Once Filch was out of sight, Melanie and George stayed like they were until they could no longer hear his footsteps, and then continued to not move for a few moments longer than was probably necessary.

Reluctantly, Melanie reached up and pulled the necklace back from around George's neck.

"Well, that was brilliant," George complimented as he dropped his arm from around Melanie's waist and squeezed out of the alcove. Melanie tried not to think about how cold her waist felt where George's arm had been pressed moments before. "What was that?"

"Just and Overlookme," Melanie shrugged, following him out of the alcove.  
"Brilliant," he repeated, "I'll have to get one of those, it could really come in handy," George said wistfully, looking down at the charm that was hanging around Melanie's neck. He reached out his hand and lifted it gently into his palm.

"Anyway, I better get back to my dorm," Melanie said awkwardly. She suddenly realized that this was the first normal, friendly conversation she had had with anyone at Hogwarts. It was weird, but at the same time nice.

"I'll walk you back," George offered suddenly.

Melanie didn't want him to see that she was in Slytherin. He probably would stop being so friendly. She shrugged. "You don't have to."

"I don't mind. It would be my pleasure to walk a beautiful girl back to her common room." Okay, there was no mistaking it now, George was definitely flirting with her. She felt like her face was getting warmer. Oh my god, she thought, Am I blushing? Melanie never blushed.

"No really, we should probably just go our separate ways. Less risky, you know," Melanie hedged, taking a step back from him. She turned abruptly and started walking down the hall.

"Hey wait. What house are you in?" George asked. Melanie easily heard him, though she pretended not to. She half expected him to follow her, but when she turned around she realized with relief that he hadn't. Waiting a couple of minutes, she turned around and went the opposite way down the hall, leading her to her common room.


End file.
